Question - Raw Powerlifting: How To Increase Your One Rep Max

[Spartigus]

Hey MAB

I saw this routine Raw Powerlifting: How To Increase Your One Rep Max - Muscle and Brawn Bodybuilding, Powerlifting and Muscle Building. was put up, and I like the idea of doing the singles.
I was wondering though how the singles should be set out.

Whether it is working up to 5 singles of the same weight. So maybe 5 singles of around 90%, then the next week adding weight and doing another 5 singles.

Or

Working up to a final heavy single which is close to your max, and each subsequent single and warmups is based of the final single you are aiming for, then the next week add weight and adjusting warmups and previous singles accordingly.

Thanks

[Fazc]

Hey Spart,

5 singles with the same weight. The idea is not to use your maximum single week-in-week-out, that would be too stressful. Multiple singles allow you to get practice in doing the reps as they are to be done in competition, for singles and heavy! If you want a rough guideline, you'd be looking at starting off at 90% or so of your 1 RM.

You'll be working with what is a comfortable training single, I always tried to stay well away from what I knew I would eventually handle as that inevitably lead to burn out. The sheer volume and form practice of a routine like this is what will get you strong, so avoid training close to your 1RM.

For example back when my single lifts were decent a max squat would be 225kg or so, multiple singles of 200kg worked very well. I then followed that with back offs at 160kg for 5 sets of 5. This was about an hour, to an hour and a half of work in itself.

It's surely not the only way, but if it's squat progress you're after then this works. As long as you rest and eat properly, getting stronger on this stuff is just inevitable.

In the words of Norb Schemansky when asked how to get a bigger press ... "PRESS!"

Also, thanks for your interest in the article!

[Spartigus]

Originally Posted by Fazc

Hey Spart,

5 singles with the same weight. The idea is not to use your maximum single week-in-week-out, that would be too stressful. Multiple singles allow you to get practice in doing the reps as they are to be done in competition, for singles and heavy! If you want a rough guideline, you'd be looking at starting off at 90% or so of your 1 RM.

You'll be working with what is a comfortable training single, I always tried to stay well away from what I knew I would eventually handle as that inevitably lead to burn out. The sheer volume and form practice of a routine like this is what will get you strong, so avoid training close to your 1RM.

For example back when my single lifts were decent a max squat would be 225kg or so, multiple singles of 200kg worked very well. I then followed that with back offs at 160kg for 5 sets of 5. This was about an hour, to an hour and a half of work in itself.

It's surely not the only way, but if it's squat progress you're after then this works.

In the words of Norb Schemansky when asked how to get a bigger press ... "PRESS!"

Thanks!

So then each week you will add say 2.5kg to the 5 singles, provided the week before didnt feel to stressful?

[Fazc]

Exactly!

On a good week I'd add 2.5kg to the bar and see how I went. Typically I might drop a single so I'd only do 3-4 singles with a view to make it up next session. So next session I wouldn't add weight and instead try and bring my reps back up to 5 singles.

It worked the same way with the back offs. Very rarely would I try to add weight to the back offs and singles in the same session. An increase in the singles would for example give me confidence to add weight to the back offs the session after and vice versa. I found the back offs to be invaluable and the single best assistance exercise for the actual lift.

I was very cautious on this routine, when you're playing with weights so close to your 1RM you really are running the fine line between burnout and progress. So just let the sheer volume and regularity of your lifting slowly get you stronger. I would also typically deload every 3rd or 4th week as the routine was very intense when the weights get high.

You can be less cautious if you're gaining weight quickly, gluttony covers a multitude of sins

[Spartigus]

Thanks for the great advice Fazc! I hope to start using this soon . Yeah I plan to deload every 4 weeks.